Scandalous Games (Arranged Games Book 1)

I already know I’m going to find her gone when I return from the bathroom but it hurts nonetheless. Yet I don’t understand why.

She can’t mean so much to me in such a short time. Especially not in a few stolen moments.

The empty bed stares at me and I drop the cloth I brought to clean and take care of her. For a moment, I think of going after her but I stop the insane urge. Tonight has been hell for her and even though I should feel guilty for stealing her virginity after playing a part in her breakup, I’m unable to. Especially knowing Niall hasn’t done this the first time.

He doesn’t deserve her.

He never did.

So, I let her run away just this once. But one day, I’ll make her mine. No matter the price.

The rain has turned into a light drizzle which eases some of the tension in my mind that Bianca will safely reach her apartment. I scan the lonely room that smells like her and lock eyes on her silk panties, which fell near the bed. Closing the gap, I bend and pick it up.

I would keep it as a souvenir but it’s a reminder I claimed her under false pretenses. A better and stronger man would’ve resisted the magnetic draw of her innocence. But when she stood at my doorstep with her wet dress that hid nothing, no amount of power on this earth could’ve stopped me.

However, it was the sound of her broken sob and the hurt of rejection that made my black heart crack into pieces. The consuming need to take her pain away erased any protest on my part, along with the line between right and wrong.

With a sigh, I decide to throw her panties, when there’s a loud crash downstairs. My head whips toward my door when it’s followed by angry footsteps climbing the stairs.

Niall.

Took him long enough.

The first thing I notice when he appears in my doorway are his bloodshot eyes and the fact that his shirt is inside out. Probably left in a rush to chase after Bianca. He looks haggard and the worst I’ve ever seen. Maybe he did love her. Just not enough to respect and not cheat on her.

“Where is she?” he shouts.

Frantic eyes search my room and as he stumbles inside, he races over to shove open my bathroom door, as if he’ll find her there. Disgust fills me when I realize he reeks of alcohol.

“Where. Is. She?”

“You just missed her, little brother,” I drawl, lifting her discarded panties with my finger.

He zooms in on the little material and goes ramrod straight. His hands ball into fists while his entire face goes red with rage, and I smirk.

“No. She wouldn’t betray me,” he mumbles.

“She did. Twice.”

I dodge his punch when he runs with his fist raised but the alcohol he consumed has made him slow and tipsy. When he tries another futile and juvenile attempt, I throw his back against the wall and punch his nose for good measure.

“I know you set the whole thing up, you prick,” he growls, wiping the blood off his face.

“I’m not the one who put your dick inside another girl.”

Infuriated by my answer, he points his finger at me. “I will win her back. Once I tell her the truth, we will be together again.”

Is he fucking delusional? I almost pity the guy before curling my lip. “If she even believes you.”

“I know why you did it,” he snarls. “You always had your eye on her. Do you think removing me gives you a chance? Do you think you’ll swoop in and be her hero? News flash, brother, she will never be yours ’cause you’re the reason for her heartbreak. Once she learns you’re no better than me and slept with her after knowingly sending her into that room, she won’t talk to you, let alone see your face.”

I flinch, because every word is the truth, but I still maintain my composure. “Then maybe you should’ve held on to the best thing that ever happened to you.”

“You might have had her body, but her heart will always belong to me.” Laughing maniacally, he taunts, “You’ll only ever be the second option, Dash.”

I punch the wall when he’s long gone.

The high I felt being inside Bianca has now been replaced with the low that comes later. As I’m sulking over Niall’s words in the dark while gazing out the window, the ringing of my phone yanks me out of my musings.

Who the fuck is calling me in the middle of the night?

The second I read the name on the phone, an ominous voice screams inside my head that my life is about to fall into bloody shards.

“Seema Aunty,” I greet Niall’s mom, and I freeze, hearing a hiccup on the other side.

“Niall’s been in an ac-accident, beta.” She sobs before rapidly talking, “He’s near your house. P-please go. Your father and I are on our way.”

The phone call yanks the earth from beneath my feet and everything is a blur after that.

The bloody scene that greets me will be forever imprinted in my soul. Sirens and loud voices yelling at each other. However, my eyes are stuck on the unmoving figure laying on the ground and for the first time, I feel something other than hate and anger towards Niall.

Shame and remorse bring me to my knees.

Hands pull me back as I try to get closer and past the ringing in my head, I can’t hear my own voice. I shout that he’s my brother and somehow shove through the bodies.

“He’s got a pulse,” someone says.

Our parents arrive and a fresh wave of agony sets me on fire when I watch the one woman who treated me as her son cry when she sees Niall bleeding on the ground. His body is twisted unnaturally. And I just know, he was on his way to Bianca.

Fuck. What have I done?

When they carry him away in the ambulance, my father approaches me and asks in a lethal voice, “What did you do, boy?”

Kill everything I touch.